Reality Check
by ohsheilz
Summary: Reality- the state of things as they are or appear to be, rather than as one might wish them to be. After Bonnie and Damon get caught up in that planet of light, where do they go? What do they see? Who do they become? And could they ever go back to being who they were before? Bamon pairing
1. Pulled Back

**What the fuck. I started another story. I didn't mean to. Post s6 finale. **

**There's Bamon (duh). There's confusion. There's flashbacks from alternate timelines! Check it out.**

* * *

_It had taken them four months. Four months and two weeks, to be exact. Four months and two weeks to get used to their new reality. _

_To accept it. _

_To lose their past selves in it. _

_Distinguishing their different personas was easy in the beginning, but with each jump it felt as if they left a piece of their old selves behind, and the gap was quickly filled by someone else. Someone that wasn't them, but could be. That was, only they weren't._

_They had managed to keep themselves apart from their alter egos for about a year until the characters they played were entangled, wires were crossed, and memories muddled. _

_The playhouse became their home. _

_The exuberant screams of children carried over to the classroom the adults mingled in, sipping punch from paper cups and eating finger food off of rainbow napkins and plates. Damon popped a pig in a blanket into his mouth. He was wearing a black, long sleeve shirt and a dark pair of jeans. Reading glasses sat atop his head._

_A woman, about 5'5" and with curly, shoulder length red hair, walked up to the side of the snack table he was standing by. She was wearing a fleece, olive green sweater and jeans, and her lack of makeup kept her homely and beautiful. _

_He gave her a quick smile before eating a brownie. He loved open house._

"_I wish I looked as beautiful as your wife when I was pregnant. I didn't look half as good as she does," the red head said as she picked up a plate and loaded it with fruits and vegetables._

"_Oh, I doubt that Katie."_

_She let out a soft, tinkling laugh- a laugh that belonged to a mother- and glanced to her left where a boy with red curls sat coloring at a table with some friends. "No really, Damon. She's glowing! Actually glowing! And that smile…she is just so gorgeous."_

_The genuine smile that was usually a rarity on the old Damon's face turned into his usual smirk. "Are you hitting on my wife through me? She'll be so pleased at this change of pace."_

"_Usually its all the moms flirting with you, right?"_

_Damon winked. "I don't mind it, but she's got a jealous streak."_

_A hand wound around his waist. "I hope you're not about to tell her about my hunger rages too," the newcomer said. _

_She was 5'2" with caramel skin and black ringlets falling down to her mid-back. Her heart shaped face had a slanted chin and she had moss colored eyes. The white tank top did nothing to hide her protruding belly, and it was accompanied with an orange cardigan that went to the back of her mid-thighs and knee length, brown boots._

"_Ah, my Bonnie lass," Damon chirped in a Scottish accent. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. "Those secrets are safe with me."_

"_I was just telling Damon how beautiful look," Katie said._

"_Aw, thank you, Katie." Bonnie touched her shoulder gratefully. "Please remind me when I'm the size of a whale."_

_The three laughed and continued munching on food as they chatted. The same red haired boy Katie had been watching earlier ran up to the group and tugged on her sweater._

"_Mommy, can Mrs. Salvatore read us a story?"_

"_Its up to her, sweetie."_

_The boy looked up at Bonnie with wide blue eyes and Bonnie giggled. "Of course I will. Let's go pick with everyone," she said, taking his hand and walking over to the group of children._

_Damon watched as Bonnie lowered herself into a chair and opened the storybook to the gaggle of tiny humans sitting cross-legged in front of her._

_The last thing on his mind was a girl named Elena. He could barely recall the name of the Virginian town he was born and died in. He was forgetting the family that he had once had, the people who used to care about him. It had been nine months since their arrival, and he had been denying the possibility of ever leaving since..._

_Four months and two weeks. _

_Four months and two weeks it took to shed the burden of their first lives and be reborn to people no one would be able to recognize. _

_Four months and two weeks to stop thinking about who they left behind. To stop missing them. To stop praying for them to keep looking for a way to save them. _

_To stop believing that they actually could. _

_Until the world began to shake uncontrollably and the winds began to howl all around them. The smile on Damon's face died, falling half open in shock as he stared at Bonnie. She looked up at him in horror, fingers clenching the book so tightly that one of her fingers began to tear a page away from the binding. _

_He wouldn't be able to get to her in time. Damon and Bonnie both knew that. But he took two quick steps forward anyways, reaching out to her. The lights became blinding and the universe ripped apart at the seams, sending the two into a gaping black hole._

* * *

For some reason, the jump was painful. Usually he could dive into his new body and new life and fit it like a glove, but right now he was thrashing into it, suffocating to claw himself out of the void. A heartbeat nailed him inside cementing this was the final destination, and he gulped in as much air as his stomach could muster. He sat up and hands restrained him from any further movement as he coughed uncontrollably.

"Here, drink this."

Someone shoved a glass into his hand and Damon took an essential drink. His taste buds disagreed with the contents of the glass as soon as the chilled liquid hit his tongue and he spat it out in thick red bullets.

A thought shot through his mind, '_Holy shit. Was that blood?'_

Someone rubbed his back. He creaked his eyes open and gasped.

He was sandwiched by people he had to think to name.

_Elena. Stefan._

Damon blinked rapidly for his vision to clear when he realized Bonnie was not by his side.

"Bonnie!" he shouted at Stefan. "Where is Bonnie?"

"We don't know," Stefan answered. "We didn't have her body so we sent the others to look where you two disappeared that night-"

Damon was up and running before Stefan could finish his sentence. His surroundings went past him in a blur and he vaguely remembered missing this vampire speed.

Funny how if he thought of that place in the woods without being in Mystic Falls, he would never be able to remember it so perfectly. Hell, he was recognizing the trees when he managed to see them. He saw the small black gate and he slowed down. He saw the four others, he saw Bonnie on the floor clutching her stomach.

"Bonnie!"

Her head whipped up and her face flooded with relief. She opened her arms and he fell to his knees, sliding the rest of the way to her and scooping her up into him. She sobbed into his shoulder and they held onto each other for dear life. A couple minutes passed and she gained some composure.

"Where are we?" she choked out.

"You're back…" the voice of her once-best-friend said.

Bonnie peeked over Damon's shoulder, her grip tightening.

Caroline, Matt, Tyler, and Jeremy stood before her.

"You're home."

* * *

**So what'd you think? I'm pretty sure I'll weave in what was said at SDCC. **

**(OMG Ian and Kat at SDCC I want to die just thinking about it!)**

**No idea how updates are going to work with this story. I still need to finish the other 2, but the first one is way close to being finished (I got writer's block for that next chapter. Its too huge it needs to be good).**


	2. OITNB

**Plot twist: this tops Turned in priority until I get writer's block. **

**Thanks for the reviews! I need some ideas for a few AU's, so if you wanna see anything lemme know! I don't want this fic to be super long (like 30 chapters is too long) but if that's what happens...(but don't get your hopes up just in case)**

**This chapter is like way longer than I intended.**

* * *

**Month 1, Day 0**

He considered, for longer than a second and not for the first time, where exactly Bonnie Bennett would end up.

She had insisted that she'd be fine, that with the help of a traveler she would also see another day in the living realm, but there was the tiniest flicker of uncertainty in her eyes…the almost indiscernible inflection of concern in her voice that 99.9% of people wouldn't notice, when she told him again- for the last time if he wanted to make it out of his kamikaze mission alive- that she was going to make it with the rest of them.

Was Damon convinced? Not entirely. It was a nagging doubt that he pushed away because there was no time for worry.

He needed to act quickly and confidently to help the people closest to me on the Other Side: Ric (if he was still alive…alive in the sense of being dead…technicalities), Enzo, and most importantly Stefan. How did all three of the people who willingly associated with him end up dead at the most inconvenient time?

So Damon told himself that he didn't have to worry about the little ex-witch; she was a big girl.

She could handle herself.

She was more than capable of making sure she survives the ghost apocalypse.

If he hadn't been busy saving everyone else's asses by blowing up his own, he wouldn't have ignored the fact that he had literally just brought her back from the dead because, like an idiot, she ended up killing herself to revive her precious Jeremy Gilbert.

Her witch's brew must have been potent since it had her believing she could pull that off, especially after being brainwashed by Professor Creepy.

Those were his last thoughts as Damon tire screech sped straight into the Mystic Grill, squeezing Elena's hand, realizing that little orphan Bonnie was done for. And then he smashed through the windshield of his beloved Camaro, flying through a sea of flame.

He forgot about Bonnie just as he forgot how fucking painful it was to be burnt to an undead crisp as he sailed over the bar of the Mystic Grill when he woke up on the Other Side.

After that it was all about getting the shit done because the clock was ticking, Damon couldn't find Ric, and Liz got caught up in the blast. So, obviously, he had to save her, and he was far from being religious- he had to stop myself from giving Bible-thumpers the finger every time he walked into a church- but whether it was some big man upstairs or the planets aligning for the plan to go perfectly, Ric finally showed up to help him save Liz.

He thought it'd be easy-peasy-lemon-squeasy from that point on.

They found Bonnie, Ric got out, Elena was out. All that was left was him, ready to board the 'I made it out alive' train, when he remembered Bonnie Bennett.

Tiny, spunky Bonnie Bennett, who he knew with so much certainty, was going to be left on the platform, waving goodbye as the Other Side was obliterated and the rest of them sat in their seats and watched her disappear out of existence- or whatever it was she would be doing when the clock hit midnight.

Half of him desperately wanted to leave her and get back to Elena. To live. The other half didn't want to let Bonnie evaporate without a fight. Damon's Adam's apple bobbed, preparing to yell at her to stop.

His body was on the verge of taking a step back and out of her reach, but she grasped his arms and pulled him closer. For one sick second, he wondered if he could manage to squeeze in a goodbye kiss before it was too late.

Except nothing happened.

The train had departed. Without Damon. He already knew it, but Bonnie tried again anyways, and was met with the same result. He was still dead.

How did he feel about that? He was devastated. He was relieved. He realized he probably had Borderline Personality Disorder.

"Well would you look at that," he said. "I guess I'm shit out of luck."

Bonnie was speechless.

He tried to keep his goodbyes short, since no one would be able to hear him anyways (and he really wanted to get back to Bonnie).

"This place is going down isn't it?" he asked over the roars of wind, walking up to stand to next to Bonnie.

"It is," she said simply.

She was taking their end very well…Bonnie never ceased to impress Damon. But, then again, so was he; he never expected to be so cavalier about his death.

Maybe because he had done his job and proved to be the man everyone wanted him to be but wasn't. Maybe because he wasn't going alone.

"I'm sure there are a million people we'd both rather be with right now," she started saying, interrupting his thoughts, "But…"

He felt her hand brush against his before her fingers slid across his and interlocked with each other perfectly. It was effortless and in sync.

"Couple thousand at most," he replied.

It was tragic, Damon thought, gazing at her while the world prepared to explode around them, that they'd find each other now, of all times.

They turned back to the brilliant white nebula threatening to swallow them.

"Do you think it will hurt?"

The question made him think back to when he was still human. When he used to wish for an easy death; quick- like the neck snaps he was so fond of-, or- unaware like dying in your sleep.

Instead he had been shot in the chest, felt the blaze of pain in his lungs and heart and everywhere until he lost feeling altogether and died cursing his father, and even Stefan.

He hoped this time it would be different.

"I don't kn-"

* * *

**Month 1, Day 1**

He blinked. Blue skies. An ugly, yellowing building surrounded by chain-link fences.

"_Damon? Damon, did you hear me? Are you still there?"_

He looked at the black iPhone in his hand; the caller ID read John B. He left the man on the line, hearing the faint _"Hello? Damon? Damn service…"_ as he focused past his hand and saw a pair of black Chuck Taylor's with his jeans and black button up shirt.

_Sneakers?_ His face twisted disdainfully and he turned around to see he was leaning against an old Honda Civic. He gagged and put the phone to his ear.

"I'm here. What did you say?"

John B. sighed gratefully. _"I said don't forget to put the contract for informant in her file and send it to the chief of police."_

Damon turned again to face the building. Someone was walking out. "…Okay…"

"_Great. I'll see you next week!"_

John B. hung up the line and left Damon to decide whether to run or square up before the newly released prisoner reached him.

The vampire in him told him to stand his ground.

But then he remembered the blinding white light and the hand that he squeezed between his fingers when it went supernova. Where was Bonnie? What had happened? He was on the verge of going full panic mode.

Relief washed over him when the woman got closer and he recognized the pout of her mouth and her lush green eyes, usually lukewarm at best in his presence, but right now they were bright with fear and confusion, mixed in with the reassurance of seeing a familiar face and she broke into a run.

Her attire- dark skinny jeans, over-the-knee, black boots, and a tank top so sheer under her leather jacket that he could see her bright red bra- and hairstyle was something Damon never thought he'd never see on her.

Bonnie jogged up to him, a smile- mirroring the one she had on before they found out he had missed his ticket out of the Other Side- was stretched on her face. He had the urge to catch her in his arms and keep her there. What were the chances of her forgetting like she did the hug when he found on her on Silas's island?

"Thank God!" she called out, her breath coming out in white puffs.

To his surprise, she reached out and wound her arms around his waist when she crashed into him, her face hidden in his chest. Damon's arms wrapped around her shoulders thoughtlessly, automatically, and he pressed his face into the uncharacteristic braids tight at her scalp.

"What the hell is this?" he questioned, plucking one of the ten braids from behind her back. "Cornrows?"

Bonnie backed out of his embrace and swatted his hand away when she saw his smirk. "That's the first thing you bring up? My _hairstyle_?"

He stressed a little bit less in their unfamiliar surroundings and strange situation. He picked up the braid again, twirling it around his finger before pulling his finger down to the flat of her chest right above her breasts, letting the hair unravel from his index finger and fall away.

"Its almost as disturbing as your outfit."

Bonnie hit his hand away again and took a step back, glaring heavily.

"Or the fact that you're exiting a _prison_."

"Is it almost as disturbing as your beard? Or that _you're_ the parole officer picking me up?" she retorted.

Damon's smirk quirked up even higher on his face and he asked, "Did you find yourself a girlfriend in there? What was her name?"

"Damon."

"Big Boo? Pennsatucky?"

Bonnie punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"Because you're disgusting. And Pennsatucky wasn't even a lesbian."

She huffed and crossed her arms tightly across her chest, hiding her cleavage, to Damon's dismay.

"And because where the hell are we!" she shouted, waving her hands wildly in the air, frustrated that Damon had managed to sidetrack her.

He rubbed his offended shoulder. "Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women," he answered, pointing to the sign.

She glanced back and shuddered.

Damon opened his mouth to shoot out another joke when an unrecognizable memory played in his head.

_He sat in a meeting room of the prison across from Bonnie who still had cornrows and a freshly split lip. A man, no, a police officer out of uniform sat on the corner of the table, looming over her as she signed a stack of papers. She finished and set the pen on the papers then slid them to Damon._

_"Fantastic. These should be processed in a week or two, then you'll be released into my custody."_

_Bonnie sat back in her seat silently, staring intently into Damon's ice blue eyes, causing the fine hairs on the back of his neck to raise. He scratched his stubbly beard bashfully and the right corner of her lip twitched almost unnoticeably._

Damon blinked out of the memory and caught _his_ Bonnie's stare.

"Did you see that?"

She nodded, rubbing her arm awkwardly. Damon reached behind him and opened the passenger door, jerking his head to motion her to get in.

"We're still in Virginia. It won't take long to get back to Mystic Falls."

He closed her door when she sat in the stained, torn seat and walked around the car to hop inside, peeling away as if he was in his Camaro. The drive was smooth, besides the sporadic separate barrage of memories they had to suffer through.

It was disconcerting living through memories and feelings that were never truly experienced. Bonnie's memories affected her more than Damon, cycling through the troubling circumstances that led her to a life of crime. Halfway through the ride she finally snapped and burst into tears.

"Oh God, don't do that," Damon pleaded, gripping the wheel tighter and glancing at her every so often with a grimace.

"Fuck you!" she shouted, adopting new Bonnie's vulgarity. "Why aren't you more worried about what the hell is going on?"

"Because I'm with you! And between my superior intellect and the fact that you're the most competent in our happy little Brady Bunch, I'd put money on us figuring this shit out. So stop crying."

The last time his parallel self checked his bank account flashed through his mind; it held a little over $5,000. For _bills_. He slapped the wheel, feeling the weight of middle class struggle. "If I had any money! The pay for this job is downright degrading."

Bonnie sucked her teeth and side-eyed him. "Says the parole officer who just picked up an ex-convict who had to slang dope on the streets just so she wouldn't end up homeless. At least you're above the poverty line."

He took her quip as a sign of good faith and his brow lifted when she didn't badger him with questions like 'how' or 'when' or 'are you an idiot'.

"You're intellect is subpar," she threw in a moment later, sounding disgusted and wiping the tears off her face.

Damon's frown deepened and his left eyebrow twitched. "Just for that, I'm gonna take you into the office and you're peeing in a cup." He grabbed a water bottle out of the side pocket of his car and held it in front of her face obnoxiously. "Better drink up."

He actually did make Bonnie pee in a cup. And she was pissed, but Damon's flagrant teasing helped calm her down more. They reached Mystic Falls and Bonnie demanded that they go straight to Caroline's.

They reached the house and got out, apprehensive about what would they learn. Driving through the town, everything looked the same, and so did everyone., but they forgot to question why Damon was able to enter the town with no repercussions.

Bonnie hurried up the steps and frantically knocked on the door. Damon strode up next to her, skillfully holding a poker face. They saw Caroline bounce down the stairs through the door window and their heart raced.

The blonde opened the door, eyebrows drawing low on her face.

"Caroline!" Bonnie exclaimed, pulling her into a tight hug. "You have _no_ idea how good it is to see you."

"_Excuse me?_" Caroline screeched, pushing Bonnie away as if she was a bum off of the street. "Why are you touching me! I don't know you!"

Bonnie stumbled back and Damon caught her before she backpedaled all the way back into prison. "Wha-"

"You better get the hell off my porch before I call the cops!"

And then she slammed the door, noisily took care of the locks, and spared them a backwards glance before she disappeared up the stairs.

* * *

**I actually have no idea how much parole officers make lol. Drug dealer Bonnie really intrigues me; I was like "What should the first AU be?" and idk how deep I'm going to delve into these alternate selves (if someone wants to write for these AUs please do). Or how I'm flip flopping through past and present. **

**If you've never watched Orange is the New Black, I recommend it. Fair warning, second season has an influx of sex scenes.**

**For the folks that asked about SDCC (yup, it stands for San Diego Comic Con): GO FIND THE VIDEO THEY SHOWED AT THE TVD PANEL AND THEN GO WATCH VIDEOS (OR GIFS, OR EVEN JUST PICS TBH) OF THE PANEL AND ANY INTERVIEW WITH KAT AND IAN (TOGETHER OR SEPARATE. ESP IAN'S. GO GO GO GO SEE IAN'S INTERVIEWS!). AND THEN FLOP AROUND ON THE FLOOR WITH ME.**


	3. Helter Skelter

**Bloop bloop.**

* * *

"Breathe, Bonnie. Just. Breathe."

She stared at the door, eyes as big as saucers.

Breathe?

She felt the desperation in her lungs, crying for air. _Breathe. _The word echoed in her head. She screamed it inside of her. _BREATHE. _

She willed it. Her sudden intake of oxygen was a wheeze of fast building hysteria. She had come home to an abandoned house again. _Again._

_The lights were off, the constant buzz and chatter of the television noticeably missing. She went inside her mother's room. The closet door was wide open, empty hangers littered the floor. The only belongings her mother had taken along with a few pairs of shoes. _

_She didn't even bother with the pictures of her daughter or her late husband. The doorknob Bonnie clung to was heartbreakingly cold._

The memory wasn't really hers, but the effect was the same. The anxiety Bonnie suffered from every so often raged inside of her, squeezing her chest, pushing out life, tightening the larynx. Fat drops of horror rolled out of her eyes. Someone, somewhere that wasn't her Mystic Falls, clenched the top of her arms.

"We need to _leave_."

She reminded herself to breathe. Another wheeze. And then another. They came in quick succession as she was lifted off the porch, toes dragging along the sidewalk she had thought she recognized.

Her lungs weren't filling. The world was spinning. She clung to the arms that held her. They were the only lifeline in this sea, pulling her back to shore, but she was too far out.

She stopped telling herself to breathe. She started believing it was impossible. Bonnie started gasping like a fish out of water. If only her tears could sufficiently lubricate her gills.

She was shifted to one hand, heard a car door pop open, and was set on the edge of a seat. Damon knelt in front of her and cradled her neck, forcing her to look at him.

"Bonnie." His voice was stern. Her voice was a deflating balloon.

"I can't breathe!"

"You're having a panic attack."

She shook her head, curling her right hand into his collar. She's had a couple of panic attacks before, but never this bad. She was dying. She was sure of it. Whatever Grams had promised her…it must have went wrong. Because this was just a different kind of hell.

"Wait here."

He disappeared, sending another spike of fear through her.

"No!" She propelled herself out of the car and collapsed onto the sidewalk on her hands and knees.

"For God's sake."

Damon pulled her off the ground and back onto the backseat. He whipped open a brown paper bag and cupped it over her nose and mouth. "Fucking breathe. Slowly."

She did as instructed and eventually she calmed. She covered Damon's hand and pushed the bag off her face but didn't let go of him.

"He brought that for her until she got new meds. Anxiety attacks are in her file."

"She doesn't have health insurance. Did he bring her a pack?"

Damon smirked at her and she returned a small grin, but it fell off her face and was replaced with exhaustion.

"Its way worse than I ever had it. Her _life_ is worse than mine. And I didn't think that was even possible because I've almost died how many times? _Actually _died how many times?"

Bonnie shook her head, bothered that she couldn't feel her hair fanning her face like before.

"She has nobody, Damon. She never really has. And it's a terrible thing to be alone. Especially for your whole life."

Damon stared at her and they shared a moment, both understanding the tragedy of loneliness.

A rumbling erupted beneath their feet. The ground shook, then the sky. The sun bleached, expanded, swallowed the blue, swallowed everything. The two watched as the world disappeared in an expanse of white.

* * *

**Month 18, Day 1?**

She kept her face in the crook of Damon's neck as he carried her to the boarding house. Jeremy had tried to offer his help, but Damon shoved him away and Bonnie didn't reach for him.

The walk back was uncomfortably silent and all Bonnie could do to keep from crying was focus on Damon's smell, his hard chest, and the strength of his arms.

She knew she wouldn't be able to ignore her flat, empty belly for too long.

Matt opened the door and everyone followed him inside to the living room. Back to Stefan and Elena.

"Is she okay?" Elena asked.

Bonnie buried her face deeper into Damon's neck, fruitlessly trying to wake herself up in her king sized bed, back where she was happily married and expecting. Not in Mystic Falls. Not with the people she had gladly forgotten about.

She wanted to go back. God, she wanted to go back. Tears leaked out despite her efforts to control herself.

"Not even remotely," Damon answered. "You've seen her. You've seen me. We're alive. I'm taking her home."

"Wait-"

"I'm borrowing your car. I'll be back later."

"Damon!"

Bonnie could tell they were walking again and then there was the sound of the car door and she was deposited into the passenger seat. She saw Elena and Jeremy at the door. She stared back, wishing she were still dead.

Damon got into the driver's seat and quickly started the car and drove off. He grabbed Bonnie's hand, squeezing it painfully and glancing at her every so often. They got to her house and she immediately got out and moved a potted plant on the porch to retrieve a key.

She opened the door and walked in; she was on her way to traveling deeper into the house, but was stopped Damon. He stood outside the door, hands braced on the frame.

"You have to invite me in."

"Come in," she said quietly, then turned to go upstairs.

She crawled into bed and curled up into a fetal position. She could hear Damon tinkering around in the kitchen. When she closed her eyes, two fat drops escaped her lids. She kept them shut tight.

Damon entered her bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed; he smoothed her hair and she opened her eyes. He had a glass of water for her, but she declined and he placed it on her nightstand.

"As soon as they could wiggle around in my tummy, they never stopped moving," she whispered. "You remember, right? You always told them to stop fighting and making my life more difficult."

"They never listened."

"No, they didn't."

Bonnie started crying, a steady flow of tears making her way down her face. She sat up and fisted the material covering stomach.

"They're gone, Damon. My babies- _our_ babies- they're gone."

Damon framed her face, making her look at him. His eyes regained the level of intensity that had softened considerably since their universe jumping adventure.

"They're not gone, Bonnie. They're not with us, but they're not gone. In a few months they'll be born, and they'll grow up, and they'll be happy. And one day…they'll be in store, or driving in a car, or at a friend's house, and they'll hear one of those Florence songs you were constantly singing- the one about love, or the other one about love, or the one about heartlines- they'll hear that song and they'll feel strangely safe and nostalgic. They'll go home and ask the other version of you if she sang that song to them when they were babies, and she'll say no, and they'll look at each other and use their freaky twin thing to have a conversation without actually saying anything."

He wiped every tear that fell down her face and tucked her hair behind her ears.

"They'll listen to Florence all the time. And they won't know it, but they're thinking of you every time they listen. They're thinking of their mother. They don't know it. They don't know _you_. But they love you. They'll remember you. Across a universe, Bonnie, across a million of them. They'll remember you."

She was a blubbering mess, laughing and crying at the comfort Damon was offering her. She could see them, her perfect, little angels, with dark curls and skin shades of caramel.

If only she could be there to see them, to help tick their heights on the wall throughout the years, to fix their aches, to watch them grow into adulthood. But she knew that was impossible.

"Are we really back?" Bonnie questioned.

Damon shook his head. "I don't know. But we have to do what we always did. Play our parts."

"Play our parts? Did you see the way they looked at us, Jeremy and Elena? Won't they want to things to go back to normal, to before the Other Side collapsed? Do you want that?"

"Of course not! But-"

Bonnie couldn't let him finish. She grabbed his face and smashed her lips onto his. Fear fueled her- fear of losing him. Her kids were gone, and there was no way she could handle losing Damon too. The kiss was noisy and wet, desperate.

Damon tried to pull himself away from her- managed to say that he wasn't going anywhere, that he loved her- and Bonnie pitched forward and coiled her arms around his shoulders and latched back onto his lips.

Damon held onto her like a man clinging to life and matched her fervency. Their clothes- the outfits they had disappeared in- were ripped off. Damon spun her around on the bed with dizzying speed.

It was all clashing flesh and suffocating embraces. Viselike grips and thunderous heartbeats. The weight missing from Bonnie's ring finger could only be replaced by Damon's body flexing against her, sinking her deeper into the mattress.

She was barely aware when a fang snagged on her lip, tearing it open and causing blood to drip out, but then his pressure was gone.

Bonnie opened her eyes and gasped. Damon hovered above her, her legs still wrapped around his waist, growling at her with deep red eyes and bared fangs. He blinked and came to his senses, but his vampiric visage did not clear off his face. He moved to get off her, but Bonnie tightened her hold on him.

"Bonnie…"

"Its okay. I'm not afraid."

"You should be."

"No. Not of you. Not anymore."

She pulled him back down to her and kissed the corner of his lips and the veins underneath his eyes. "Wherever, whenever, whatever."

The fangs retreated, and his eyes cleared. He stroked her face. "Wherever, whenever, whatever."

She smiled softly and soon they were stuck together by their mouths. Their tongues waltzed gently until Damon moved to Bonnie's jaw, and then her neck. She twined her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck and could feel him against her thigh.

She lifted her pelvis and pressed into him. He grabbed her hips and slowly entered her. Bonnie moaned with each thrust, whimpered each time he sucked her flesh, shivered every time she felt his teeth graze her damp skin.

"Do it," she moaned. "Do it."

She didn't need to specify. He dragged his tongue across the thrumming artery in her neck before biting into it. Bonnie bucked against him, snaking her hands underneath his arms and clinging to his muscled back.

A year ago, if anyone had told Bonnie the situation she found herself in now, she would have laughed. If they had told her what her relationship with Damon would become, she would have scoffed condescendingly.

She would never had believed that she would fall in love with him so deeply. She would have never believed that their love ran deeper than blood. That it was made of the same glamour that built the stars, comets, and planets that stretched across universes.

* * *

**Whenever you see Day 1, that means they've jumped. **

**Bamon babies. *wipes tear* _twins _*sobs***

**Thank you for the reviews.**


End file.
